Seer aenmerkelyke reys-beschryving na Constantinopolen, en Egypten, gedaan in het jaar 1605, en vervolgen...

CONSTANTINOPOLEN en EGYPTEN. CONSTANTINOPLE and EGYPT.

1605.

people with it. It should be noted here that when the fault of the slave is not too great, he keeps his shoes on, which is a great relief and mercy. But when a slave has done something wrong to a prominent Bassa, the fury of those people goes so far that they not only have the criminal who committed the act beaten on the soles, but all other slaves, however innocent they may be, must also undergo this miserable fate; so that commonly the innocent must pay with the guilty and bear this punishment patiently.

Schmid travels through Bulgaria.

Not long after that, we were sent away from Belgrado again and brought by water to Nicopolis, called Ruschick in Turkish. Here we had to continue our journey by land and were loaded four by four in baskets on camels, by which we were carried through all of Bulgaria—in which province we spent only five days—to Varna, a place situated on the Black Sea.

Noteworthy plain in Bulgaria.

On this journey, we encountered a beautiful and very pleasant plain over which we traveled, and we saw many thousands of small hills, about the height of a man, which were all covered with grass. I asked about the reason for these mounds, which were certainly thrown up by design; however, the inhabitants knew no other cause to give than that, as they had heard from their ancestors, a bloody battle had once taken place on that spot, where many thousands of people had lost their lives and had been buried there. Others said again that these hills were thrown up by the inhabitants themselves so that they could serve as breastworks in time of war. But I could not well accept this last reason because they were placed here and there, outside of all order.

About two miles from Varna, we met several Turks on mules who had bought a large quantity...